Recently a women about my age mentioned she was a big rock music fan and was excited about going to a concerned that evening. Of course this got me interested and I asked her what concert and she replied REO Speedwagon, Styx and Journey. Though I was a little bit deflated at this fact I followed up with questions about popular music that was less than 25 years old but she responded with blank looks. Still hopeful that we might have something in common I asked her what her favorite Styx Lp was and she responded she liked the greatest hits package best, she also didn't like REO and that Journey was the greatest rock band of all time.

I was in the checkout line at my favorite record shop and had a copy of a Jesus Lizard record I was purchasing. Some kid all dressed in black with about a pound of metal clamped on his face came up to me and said "excuse me sir I find it pretty cool to see old people buying such good music".

A professional software engineer I worked with in 1993-94 wore a Led Zeppelin T-Shirt to work everyday, had Led Zeppelin collectables and posters hanging on his cubicle and carried a stack of CDs into work every day - 4/5 of them were Led Zeppelin CDs.

A very well and establish record collector I know expressed to me the overwhelming feeling of joy he gets when carrying a stack of 45s each worth over $100.

It's hard to find audiophiles to talk about music with because most music sounds like shit on their systems.

Most people my age or even up to 10 years younger than me that I meet who claim to be music lovers consider Tom Petty or the Dire Straights as being too much punk or alternative for their tastes.

Anticipating the most recent Lucinda Williams release I went to Zia record exchange at midnight to get it on it's release date. I stood in line with 20-30 kids waiting for the new Linkin Park (I think) record. The Lucinda Williams record sucked.

Discussing my record collection with a clerk at a used alternative record shop I inquired about his collection. He stated he had a very large and esoteric collection of great music - however he didn't want to talk about it with me because he was sure I had never heard of any of the bands or music he considered worthy.

I had a similar experience in the mid - 90s. I went to the Ticketmaster desk at Tower Records to buy a ticket for an Atari Teenage Riot concert in NYC. While we were waiting for the ticket to be printed the clerk - a typical 20-something record store clerk wearing a T shirt advertising an obscure band - said, "this is for your kid, right?" I indignantly replied "No, it's for me!" He looked astonshed but then smiled and said, "Hey, you have good taste for an old guy."